CHAPTER SEVEN
---OCEANUS---
The virus rewrote the override code that was inhibiting it from firing, and then successfully found a network of pathways that allowed for the bypass of the Weapons Terminal. The only problem was the system of circuit highways it now used as a bypass was not designed to handle the electrical load required for controlling the automation. Craton could fire its guns, but only a few of them at any one time or the circuits would melt and fuses would blow due to the current being forced through them.
The virus activated half the odd number guns around the ship. Craton reacquired Athena, and fired!
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We watched the live video feed in horror as Craton shot up my battleship. I was speechless. I only hoped Athena was able to quickly mount a defense. After all, Athena was heavily armed and already manned. Athena was older than Craton, considerably. We pushed her back into service once we found her here in FTB. Athena was one of the Original Class Battleships that worked with the Original Class Battlestars back during the first Cylon War. Her systems were not networked and she was built tuff.
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Craton was firing only a handful of guns at Athena, but the effect was instant. Tiny explosions and breaches popped up along Athena's dorsal hull. Atmosphere sprayed out of the bullet holes that littered the ship. Personnel, in maintenance pressure suits working outside the ship, ran for cover. There was no sound in the dock because there was no atmosphere, but there were many concussive ripples from the bullet impacts and small explosions.
Athena was taking a light pounding. Without Craton using all her guns, Athena would survive the assault. Then the docking clamps holding Athena released, and the hose connections and walkways retracted. Athena ignited her maneuvering thrusters and lifted off her cradle. As she raised above the dock, in level with Craton, she changed her attitude and pointed her nose at Craton. Simultaneously, all her point defense guns began firing as she attempted to acquire Craton in her forward bow cannons.
The virus saw this and began to move the ship. It attempted to keep Craton away from Athena's bow batteries. Those forward cannons were more powerful than the Point Defense Guns and Turret Batteries and were more than capable of damaging Craton. As Craton maneuvered away from Athena's bow, she switched to firing the guns on the section pointed towards Athena. The virus needed to use Craton's Turret Batteries and Main Forward Batteries, but first it had to find more pathways to reroute the power necessary to do it, or the whole network grid would just fry. If it could find enough electronic pathways, then, theoretically, the virus would be able to divide the electrical load that was required to control all the weapons.
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"Put the dock on high alert and sound the preparation for evacuation. Do we have any way to help Athena?" I asked while standing at the lighted table.
"There are no weapons in the dock Commander," responded the Watch Officer. "DRADIS is up!" Just then DRADIS came back online.
"All civilian personnel, this is an e-vac-prep-or-der. All civilians are to report to their designated drill captains"
I waited for DRADIS to sweep the surrounding region. As I waited for DRADIS to do its job, I heard the echo of faint bullets impacting the tower. The impacts were irrational and it was apparent the tower was not Craton's target, not yet anyway. Then we heard blips on the DRADIS console, followed by red contacts appearing on the screen. "Frak. Someone get me a damn wireless!" I yelled.
"Here Commander," said Slaton as he handed me the radio that was clipped to his waist. I was beginning to see why Cody kept him around, other than the obvious.
"Someone get me Virgil's frequency!" I yelled towards the communications center.
"Three thirty four seven five," responded Slaton. "That's Virgil's CIC."
I smiled as I punched in the frequency into the radio. I was beginning to like David. As soon as I entered the frequency, I talked, "Virgil, FTB, over." I waited. "Battlestar Virgil, this is FTB CIC, come in?"
The static was filled with a transmission, "Bev, it's Matt, we are a few minutes from being up and running. My Pilots are waiting to help Athena, but they can't takeoff while the launch tubes are so close to the other Battlestars." That made sense because Virgil was parked between the original Battlestars Solaria and Universal.
"Great Matt, but Craton is the least of our problems." I looked up at DRADIS. "We have two Cylon Raiders approaching FTB. They are a few minutes out from weapons range." Just then the Raiders disappeared. "Standby one."
"We just pulled up the exterior relays, I saw them. They are probably jumping back to the main fleet to verify our position," said Matt.
"I agree," I continued. "Get your ass disconnected and out of the station."
"We're trying Bev, but I'm beginning to think you like my ass." Then he hung up.
I smiled at the attempt at humor in the dire situation we were in, but the video feed from the dock sucked out any happiness I had.
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The two vessels danced around the dock, like electrons on opposite sides of a nucleus. Between them was the dock tower. Above the dock tower was a barrier made up of Athena's flak ammunition, and bullet fragments. Making its way through the barrier was a fraction of the bullets being fired by either side.
On Craton, the virus found a series of circuit pathways to split up the electrical load in order to control all the weapons. The first command the virus gave was to launch Craton's nuclear missiles. After the virus learned all the missile tubes were empty, it began systematically shooting at everything around it.
Craton's Point Defense Guns targeted all the small and medium transports along the top level ring. It didn't take much for the bullets to destroy the unarmored spaceships. Explosion after explosion rippled around the top level as transport after transport was destroyed while they rested helplessly in their cradles.
Craton's Turret Batteries targeted Athena and fired. Unlike Athena, Craton was not firing flak ammunition to help protect from the oncoming barrage of bullets. Instead, Craton was firing high-explosive anti-capital ship shells. The anti-capital shells punched through the black veil of flak shards hovering over the dock tower, and slammed right into Athena's port nose! The impacts halted Athena from her forward propulsion because it pushed her starboard side into the nearby canyon wall.
The impact with the dock wall inside FTB caused Athena to erupt with pressure explosions along her starboard bow. She sunk towards the top level ring from the inertia caused by the explosions all the while firing what weapons she could at Craton. Athena's damage from the port bow was too extensive to revive the weapons near that section, so her Main Forward Batteries were non-functional. However, the rest of her guns worked, and she proceeded to fire on Craton while she was being gunned down like a wounded animal.
Craton changed direction. The virus calculated Athena had a 71% chance of still being operable, and with Athena being fully manned, armed and in position to strike easily, the virus determined Athena was the most threat inside the dock by 59%. Instead of orbiting the dock tower, Craton shifted in a violent turn, and steamed head on, straight for Athena, determined to destroy the threat once and for all.
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"How the frak did you let the Cylons take Craton?" Jacobs asked angrily to Slaton.
Slaton stuttered a bit, but responded with affirmation, "we, we, we, I, we wrote, a program, you can't, ah! We wiped the mainframe and rebuilt the system using a new base code. All the security and transport protocols were modified. Craton is. . . was the most network secure ship. There is no way. . ."
I didn't like Jacobs, but I saw the reason for his question. It was I who interrupted Slaton, "but they did David. How? How would you do it? Think like a Cylon." I looked back up at the DRADIS screen. Nothing was on the screen, and I needed that assurance.
"The only way," continued Slaton, "for the Cylons to break in and rewrite Cratons code to use the ship like they are is if, and only if, a program was already on the system to allow them to do that, and that is not possible!"
"Kid, I swear to the Gods I will hold you accountable for this if you don't figure it out!" yelled Jacobs.
Slaton was not phased by his comments. I looked back at the live feed from the dock. My heart sank. My ship was about to be destroyed.
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Craton hovered perpendicular next to the crippled Athena. Craton adjusted her attitude in order to align her main forward batteries in a linear path with Athena's engine core. The anti-capital ship shells loaded with the an automated sequence into the bow batteries. The virus took into account the Athena's stationary location and distance and deemed the need for a firing solution was less than 20%, so that meant it would take the chance to fire blind, without the solution.
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Everyone in the CIC was glued to the dock video feed. Then we heard a crackle over the hand held wireless that was laying on the lighted table. Everyone's attention immediately shifted to the wireless transmission, "FTB, Oceanus, we got this mother frakker!" We looked back up to the video feed.
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The Battlecruiser Oceanus had disconnected from her cradle, but did not move off it. Instead, in order to avoid Craton's attention, Oceanus waited for the perfect moment to hit her. The moment arrived as Craton was pointed at Athena about to strike. The carefully timed events executed. Oceanus ignited her ventral thrusters to full power, causing a quick ascent straight up without losing her horizontal attitude relative to the dock.
Oceanus' speed was too much to slow her in time enough to acquire Craton in her bow cannons. Instead, as to achieve surprise, she kept her speed and had already programed a firing solution that would triggered the bow cannons automatically as she passed Craton's engines. The shells left Oceanus' bow cannons and obliterated Cratons engine pods.
The instant Oceanus' shells hit Craton, the resulting impact cause Craton to shift her horizontal tilt. Craton tilted to where her nose was now pointed just over Athena, at the dock wall. This rapid movement coincided with Craton firing her main forward batteries. The anti-capital rounds barely missed Athena and ended up hitting one of the Integrity Shell's main lateral supports.
Oceanus' slowed as she approached the overhead entry and exit tunnel. Simultaneously, Craton's engine core went critical and exploded. The explosion was massive as Craton was obliterated in a flash of light. The entire station shook. The concussive shock-wave hurt Athena the most, as she was pressed and bent into the obliterated integrity lateral support. Athena was totaled.
Oceanus caught the end of the concussive blast. The result added a variable the helmsman didn't account for in attempting to slow Oceanus before she hit the dock ceiling. Instead of Oceanus slowing to a stop after her rapid vertical ascent, the shock-wave pushed against her and caused her dorsal hull to impact the overhead dock ceiling. Rocks and dust floated away from the impact, and Oceanus lost positive control and began to spiral down onto the top level ring.
On the top, middle, and lower level rings, in the omnidirectional range of the explosive shock-wave, every ship was damaged. The smaller ships exploded, while the medium and large transports flipped or tilted with explosions on them. The Battlestar in the range of the shock-wave buckled.
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We all fell over. I hit my head on the table and was bleeding. The overhead DRADIS console came crashing down onto the lighted table. Glass maps and grids shattered by the force. People were screaming and yelling. Dust, debris and shards of metal fell down from the rusted ceiling. The lights flickered and exploded. I heard the digital alarm go silent as I felt the force of something massive hitting the dock tower. I could only assume it was the remains of the Battlecruiser Craton. I felt someone grab my hand. When I looked, I saw it was David.
I was scared. But, through the loud chaos, I heard David say something very low. It caught my attention because it occurred to me he was only saying it because it was loud and he thought no one could hear him. "Only fitting, you're dead, and you take your ship with you. You two had a relationship I never understood. Bye my friend." Then I saw him shed a tear as he stared at Cody's body that was still laying in the CIC.